You would like to know more? Here are our answers to some of the key questions that have been put to us ….
How long has this procedure been available?
The idea itself was discovered a few years ago. However, knowledge about the workings of automatic motor reflexes has never been fully used or developed. Nearly five years ago the procedure as it is used presently, was tested experimentally in the sports world using sportspeople of all levels.
The ACTIVA process has now been perfected and is available for all athletes whether professional or amateur.
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What does the procedure consist of?
The mechanics of the process are quite complicated and involve scientific and medical terms which would appear unnecessarily tedious and of limited interest to the layman.
However, I will run through the principles. In short and simply put the procedure uses a specific brain function which plays a decisive role in the recording and reproduction of automatic motor responses. We use this brain function to access the place from where these automatic responses are governed. We then activate this area using a simple technological aid in order to programme or reprogramme the reflexes that the athlete or his/her trainer wish to create or recreate.
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Could you say more about this?
The best information we can give you on this procedure is that it works and produces results that are easy to verify. In summary, we achieve the activation or reactivation of the desired automatic responses through a specific procedure that uses a simple neurophysiological approach that is effective within a very short time-frame.
In fact, the main focus of this concept is the rapidity with which the automatic responses are modified – one or two sessions lasting a couple of hours against months or even years of treatment using other methods.
The overriding advantage is that one no longer has to use one’s body and time to acquire a new movement. You only have to ask athletes who have suffered injury from overwork or fractures from fatigue what they think about this ……
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Are these changes lasting?
As the concept is based on the way the brain works, we can say that from the moment the automatic reflex is activated, there is no obvious mechanical reason that this should disappear.
Of course, an automatic movement (however it has been encoded and activated) can be open to different influences. Otherwise how would we explain the fact that some athletes regularly lose control of certain automatic movements which support good performance, or else are unable to achieve them in the first place or relocate them once they are lost.
The automatic reflexes that we activate with our procedure are the same as all other automatic reflexes acquired in the normal way. They hold the same qualities and have the same faults. It is only the way these are activated and the length of time they are held on to that changes. They are then combined with others, thus theoretically sensitive to the same attacks and disturbances: physical and psychological trauma, an over-reaction to an emotion or to stress or, just simply and generally, all that can disturb motor function and movement.
We are not creating a “new race” of automatic motor responses. We are not trying to impose on the athlete a way of working that goes against nature.
We do not guarantee that the automatic motor responses that we activate are either sound or permanent. As a rule they are like all other movements. I say “as a rule”, although, in reality, it seems that they are more robust than other movements because they are underpinned psychologically. We don’t talk about this because it is difficult to make a rigorous assessment of this particular effect. However, if we hear concerns that there is a risk that these automatic reflexes will lose effect in a competitive situation, we will simply reply that if the risk were to exist this proves that the movement is already in place. And it is much better to come to a competition with correct movements than with poor ones.
In some cases where certain automatic movements have a tendency to lose their strength with time for the reasons we have just mentioned, the product that we are offering includes in any case an “after sales service” which consists of a process of reinforcement because we also know how to reinforce an automatic movement.
After all, when a trainer spends months, sometimes years, in trying to help an athlete acquire a correct movement, we don’t say that this movement may not stick in certain competitive situations and therefore working on it is pointless. The only difference between that kind of work and ours (besides the actual procedure) is the length of time it takes to acquire the movement.
Then it involves dealing with behaviours and mental states and all situations in which they might be changed and then to alter the individual’s modus operandi. But here we are talking about another area – which is that of psychological preparation.
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Are you able to affect the permanency of these automatic responses?
The procedure actually reinforces the pathway that has been activated. In this way, the automatic response that we are activating will be more solid that others. Using this same logic, we can also reduce the effect of emotion and stress on the robustness of the automatic movement and, finally, we know how to fix the new movement.
As well as this, if we think about it, the heightened emotion and stress experienced by the athlete are usually due to some kind of doubt about their ability to do well, their fear of losing or a worry about confidence in personal ability. Just knowing that the desired automatic response is in place and activated produces outstanding results on the emotion and stress which are suppressed down to their roots. So our procedure produces certain side effects on the solidity of the motor response even if it is not being attacked head on and even if we do not have the means to measure these effects.
Moreover, we are careful about preserving the quality and the integrity of the motor response. We do it simply, in the most traditional way, by reducing what we call the margin of error and by encouraging conditions where the development of the motor response is possible.
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Is the procedure failsafe?
The procedure is rigorous and infallible just in the same way that the normal brain works. What is less so is man himself ……
In a word, if we take a relative setback as an example (there is no such thing as complete failure), or more precisely, an incomplete modification of the automatic response, an analysis of the procedure always shows that human error has crept in at a certain point or stage, such as a poor diagnosis concerning the reason for the positive or negative automatic response, or an error in the mechanical interpretation of the movement, or a morphological impossibility.
So we consider that the process has been effective to 90% or 95% and that the remaining 5% or 10% are considered within the frame of setbacks due to our own error.
We therefore attempt a logical approach to reducing the risk of error in applying the process. This takes quite a simple but effective form.
And this is why we are careful and demanding in the training of Activa experts. It is quite a long process which demands a lot of practice and work in the field.
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To which sports does it apply specifically?
In theory to all! The procedure can be applied to all sports but there are three conditions necessary for its correct application in practice.
v Firstly there must be an identified motricity with movements that have been technically coded in line with recognised standards
v Secondly, a trainer must be found who can identify how the present movement of the athlete is lacking or ineffective and this will indicate to us the correct movement that needs to adopted
v Finally, we need to be able to film the athlete as s/he carries out the movement
In practice we have realised that we can clearly validate the process in sports such as golf and tennis but we have also applied it experimentally to baseball, boxing, fencing, ski and pelota (basque pelote).
We also carried out some extremely probing tests on motivity where the automatic motor responses had been damaged or rendered unworkable through various trauma, whilst the motor system itself returned to perfect working order.
But whatever your sport, if you believe that your progress is being held back through a faulty movement, contact us and we will get together to see whether the ACTIVA procedure can help you.
For practical examples see under the heading “EXAMPLES”
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Won’t your procedure replace traditional training approaches?
No. Our field of intervention is very clearly complementary to the traditional methods of training when this proves to be ineffective or when things are just not working.
Happily, in the vast majority of cases, the automatic responses that govern athletic movement are acquired easily through regular training. But it is often the case that the activation or reactivation of these automatic responses will be resistant to all known approaches.
In this case, instead of making the athlete repeat a movement that s/he is clearly finding difficult to acquire, it is more effective to call us in.
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Won’t your procedure replace trainers and teachers?
Of course not! Most importantly, without the trainers and teachers we would be out of work!
Above all, the procedure demands that both good and poor movements be analysed and diagnosed. And only a professional can do this. The athlete on his/her own is ill-equipped to carry this out with the necessary precision and accuracy apart from a few professional athletes (and again, we insist that as far as possible the trainer is involved in the process). We have neither the right nor competence to diagnose a good or bad movement. However, it is important to know we only get involved in a sport that we know well and which we master (this sometimes happens) and we have a policy which prevents us from having any kind of opinion of the athlete in front of us and on the movement which he is performing.
Our role is very clear and we are want to keep it so.
In addition, confining the trainer or the teacher to the simple role of helping with the recording of motor reflexes, that is to get them to control the repetition of the movement, is very disempowering. As professionals ourselves, we know that the role of the trainer is much more important. However, they cannot always carry out all the facets of their assignment because they hit up against the laborious, long and inevitable process of learning about motor fitness.
In fact, our process helps the lives of trainers and teachers who will finally be able to perfect the operation of their sports pupils in all other areas: physical, strategic, mental, technical. And technical progress which involves study, definition, research of new movements or perfection of existing movements, remains the domain of the trainer and the teacher. And this is the key point.
And finally, the trainers and teachers are going to quickly understand everything that they can take away from the process.
There is a group of sportspeople, notably amateurs and leisure players, who would never approach them either because they don’t want to, don’t have the time, or both or who think that taking lessons or training will cost them a lot to acquire very laborious automatic movements with a very low success rate. This group often believes that the return on their investment is too low. And they are right as you have to be a competitive sportsperson in order to spend hours each day and days each week and weeks each month, year on year, to be OK with taking unreasonable amounts of time instead of simply taking time in the pleasure of living and enjoying quality sport. In the future, this group of sportspeople will turn towards the teachers and trainers for they know that it is through them that they will be able to benefit from our product. Don’t lose any more of their time!
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What is included in the ACTIVA offering?
The ACTIVA offering consists of one session that aims to modify the automatic reflex which could involve one or two basic movements.
The modification of two small and simple movements generally allows the athlete to find one key movement which is much more effective. Dealing with more than these two small movements is too much for one session. We then make an evaluation of the client with his trainer as to whether a further session is required, at a small extra cost.
However, these further sessions are rarely necessary.
This session provides a video analysis which is then given to the client, with the cassette in a file which records the steps that have been taken and the final result.
For more detail on the content of a session go to The Activa Procedure
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How long does a session last?
This depends a lot on the complexity of the movement that needs to be corrected and the circumstances of the intervention but, on average, at least one day is required. We also include an extra half-day to ensure maximum value is gained from the intervention.
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How much does an intervention cost?
As each intervention is different we like to provide an estimate after having met and made an analysis of the client’s needs.
Our conditions of sale are also specific to each case, so giving an example is not possible. It is difficult to compare the case of one professional athlete against the collective of an amateur sports organisation which wishes to call upon ACTIVA for its competitors for one or two seasons.
Suffice to say that we have a pricing structure that is flexible and adapted to each case.
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Won’t you be allowing anyone to become an expert?
Certainly not. We would be able to say this if we were using a push-button approach and if we were suggesting the transplant of specific movements imported from elsewhere. We are not trying to deceive anyone. We insist upon the fact that we do not force anyone to take on a movement of which they are incapable. And not everyone is capable of making the movements of a champion.
On the other hand, everyone is able to make the most of movements within his or her personal capability, know-how, physical and technical competence in a given moment.
Everyone has heard it said (or you may have said it yourself), “I am capable of doing this movement but am not doing it, or not very often, or not in all situations”. What our system will allow you to do is to carry out this movement more often or every time. We are not going to transform a carthorse into the winner of the America Cup but will get him to be the best carthorse that he can be. We can also help a brilliant horse become the winner of the America Cup, but the decision is his (and that of his jockey …)
It is also important to remember that we are not sports professionals and have not been steeped in this kind of physical skills training. We cannot ignore the facts of this learning process because we have discovered the means to affect the time it takes to acquire automatic reflex movements. Even if this represents a real revolution, we have to admit it!
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Doesn’t this procedure principally concern competitive and professional athletes?
The brain, and specifically the part that governs automatic movements, is unaware of competitive or professional sports. All it knows is movement.
The mechanics that are called upon to perform the automatic movement of an Olympic champion is, for the brain, exactly the same as that which will be activated in the movement of the Sunday athlete.
So be reassured that everyone, whatever his level of practise and the quality of his movements, will benefit from this intervention. It will just apply to different elements.
For the champion it will allow fine tuning which will give him a few extra points, meters, or seconds which divide him from perfection.
For the leisure athlete, it will resolve basic faults.
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